When talking about the phablet category in the smartphone competition, the first handset that comes to mind is the Samsung Galaxy Note II when talking about the undisputed king of the hill of the category. This is because the massive 5.5-inch screen real estate of the second generation Samsung phablet makes it a cross between a phone and a tablet – hence, the term phablet. The reign of the Samsung Galaxy Note II was further emphasized by the impressive components under its hood which in turn enable it to offer capabilities otherwise not found on handsets with slightly smaller displays.
The domination of the Samsung Galaxy Note II would have been complete had HTC decided not to come up with the HTC Droid DNA. Before the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer decided to join the tablet fray, other OEMs failed miserably in coming up with a phablet powerful and capable enough of bringing down the Samsung behemoth. Thanks to HTC and its Droid DNA, the Samsung Galaxy Note II now has a worthy competitor that can offer it more than token competition.
The question left unanswered right now though is if the HTC Droid DNA is powerful and capable enough to bring down the Samsung Galaxy Note II from its lofty perch.
First, let us talk about screen real estate that also affects the overall size of the devices. The Samsung Galaxy Note II comes with a 5.5-inch display with a 1280 x 720 resolution that makes it a bit too massive for some people’s taste while the HTC Droid DNA sports a slightly smaller 5.0-inch panel with a 1920 x 1080 resolution which in turn leads to a slightly smaller chassis. At the end of the day, this all boils down to preference as some people would want a more “pocketable” handset and do away with the bigger display.
Under the hood, the two devices are equally capable. The Samsung Galaxy Note II comes with an Exynos 4412 Quad chipset with a quad-core 1.6 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor while the HTC Droid DNA is powered by a QualComm APQ8064 SnapDragon chipset with a quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait processor. Both devices come with 2GB of RAM and though the Samsung phablet has a slightly faster processor in terms of clock speed, this will not be felt in the real world.
When talking about storage, the Samsung phablet is a bit ahead in this since it comes in a 16GB and a 32GB version while the HTC Droid DNA only has 16GB of onboard storage. And to make matters worse, the Samsung Galaxy Note II supports memory expansion with its microSD card slot which is lacking in the HTC phablet.
Clearly, the Samsung Galaxy Note II will take advantage of its memory expansion support and bigger screen real estate but the HTC Droid DNA banks on its pocket-friendlier size and higher screen resolution. At this point in time, it will all boil down to personal preference as mentioned earlier.
How about you? Will you be going for the Samsung Galaxy Note II or get your hands on the HTC Droid DNA? You be the judge!
February 14, 2013 at 10:36 am
Really, that’s where the comparison stops?
Let be honest, you did this artical without ever touching either phone.
1. You never covered the s-pen of the note 2
2. Sure the CPUs are similar, but the DNA blows away the note 2 on benchmark tests
3. The DNA as a Beats audio system – very cool
4. The Note 2 can run split screen mode (a BIG +)
5. he huge battery in the Note 2
To actually make a choice between the two you really have to look beyond the screen size. You really missed the mark with this article.